Nightmare
by Selestyna Arpa364
Summary: I noticed that there were a lot of fics with Maka having a nightmare about Soub, but what if Soul has been having nightmares of Maka? Smidgen of angst. T for language and blood.


**A/N: I don't own Soul Eater.**

Soul felt _beyond_ uncool. Actually, it wasn't that he felt uncool, he was _terrified_. Normally it was Maka who would have nightmares, most of them concerning him being cleaved in two, or dying, or both.

He didn't tell her when he began having them.

They started about a month back, right after he and Maka got back from fighting a powerful kishin. He had finally become a death scythe and was on a tough solo mission with Maka in Germany, searching out some kishin named blah in the town of blah blah, doing a bunch of bad stuff that caused him to be targeted for termination by the DWMA. They found the kishin rather quickly, after all, how many 8 foot tall bandaged mummy/spikey fingered/dripping slime were there in Dusseldorf? But everything went wrong after they found him.

"_Careful Maka, this one is smart."_

"_I know that Soul, he's already put three weapon/meister pairs in the hospital. This ends here." Maka tightened her grip on the hilt of Soul and he grinned, he knew she was right._

_The kishin spotted them and immediately took off after Maka, making her run to avoid his fast attacks. _

"_Damn, there's no opening," Soul said._

"_Well then I'll just have to make one!" Maka sprung forward, swinging Soul low, aiming for the kishin's legs. For a moment, Maka thought she had him until she felt some of the bandages on the kishin wrap around her waist. She was pulled backward, hitting a wall of a nearby house. The kishin took advantage of her momentary dizziness to steal Soul from her hands and pin the weapon to the ground with one of his spikey-fingered hands._

"_No! MAKA!" Soul struggled fiercely, realizing there was no space for him to move or transform. He watched in horror as the kishin picked her up using the bandages and threw her through the windows of a nearby church. He heard Maka screamed in pain. He dragged her out pinned her to another wall, wrapping more bandages around her and squeezing her by the torso until Soul thought he heard a crack. The kishin laughed maniacally. Then he began spearing his fingers into the wall near her, briefly relaxing his vice-like grip on Soul. Soul didn't waste the opportunity. He transformed so that only his right arm was a scythe and cut clean through the kishin's arm right above its wrist. The kishin roared and one of his fingers caught Maka in the shoulder. Soul cut at the kishin's chest and with an ear-splitting scream, it died and began disappearing._

"_MAKA!" Soul ran to catch her when the bandages that held her disappeared. He slid and managed to catch her clumsily right before she hit the ground._

"_Maka! C'mon Maka, answer me, please be okay!" He fumbled around and felt for her pulse. Relief surged through his body when he felt a small thump beneath the fingers he placed on her neck. Quickly he scooped her up and grabbed the kishin's soul to eat later._

Maka spent a week in the hospital and he barely left her side for anything. She had broken a rib, sprained her wrist, and had to get 30 stitches on various parts of her body (particularly on her shoulder). Soul was fine except for several small bruises and cuts.

The day she came home was when the nightmares started. The dream would start normally and he would be doing everyday things like going to class or doing homework with Maka. All of a sudden the same kishin would come in and this time it was Maka who was getting cleaved in two. Every night for the past three weeks he would wake up, scared and sweaty, reliving the dream over and over in his mind, unable to fall back asleep. After the first week, he actually took to going to bed shirtless despite it being mid-March.

He didn't want to tell Maka, she was his friend, his meister, and was the most important thing to him. Telling her would be super uncool…and unnecessary. She already worried enough over him (yeah he knew, despite her brave face) he didn't need to give her another reason to worry. So he pretended nothing was wrong as he watched Maka slowly get better.

She already knew something was wrong. Maka could just tell with Soul, he hid it well, but she saw him napping more during class and his showers had gotten a little longer…a sure sign he was thinking about something. She decided not to press him about it, he would tell her when he wanted to. Until then, she decided to keep a close watch.

It was one of the worst Fridays ever. First, he spent too much time in the shower and made him and Maka late for class, then Black Star decided to challenge him to a fighting match _in__the__middle__of__class_, and he was now sporting a nice welt on his head from a sneak attack. In addition, Professor Stein decided to give them a pop quiz, which he most definitely failed. Then lunch, which is normally a wonderful time was ruined first by Kid who wanted to monologue about the symmetry of the shirt he wore, until Black Star spilled orange soda all over it. Finally, as if his day couldn't get any worse, he saw Maka's dad (which was bad in itself), got accused of harassing her, then was accidently Maka chopped with her father…on top of the bruise he already had. Yup, it was one hell of a day.

When he got home, he was more exhausted than ever, coupled with the insomnia, the bruised head, and thus the headache, he just wanted to sleep for a year or so.

"Maka, I'm gonna take a nap for a bit. Can you wake me up when it's time for me to make dinner?"

Maka picked up on his voice. He was exhausted. "Actually Soul, I'll make dinner tonight."

He glanced at her, surprised. "Really? You sure you're up for it?" The doctor only just cleared her wrist and taken the stitches out, but he knew her ribs were a bit sore.

Maka smiled. "Yeah, Tsubaki gave me a new recipe today and I really want to try it out."

Soul gave a small smirk. "Thanks Maka, you're cool." He proceeded to trip over one of Blair's numerous undergarments and scrape his cheek on the corner of the table.

"Soul! Are you-"

"I'm fine, it's cool." He picked himself off the rug, fetched the first aid kit from the bathroom, walked into his room and closed the door. He flung his bag onto the usual spot, took off his shirt (his FAVORITE shirt, damnit Black Star), and tossed in the general direction of his hamper. He would wash it later.

He put a band-aid over his bleeding cut and flopped on his bed with no intention of going to sleep. He simply lay there, just thinking about Maka. In all honesty, she worried him so much more than she would ever know…

"_Soul, dinner is ready!" Maka announced, walking into his bedroom. She was smiling at him as he slowly got up. "Did you sleep well?"_

"_Yeah, I-"He couldn't breathe because the tip of a scythe was sticking through Maka. "Maka?" She began spitting up blood. "NO, MAKA!"_

"_S-Soul." Suddenly an invisible force pulled her out of the door, into the living room. Soul followed after her, finding Maka floating in midair, being suspended by the scythe that impaled her._

"_MAKA!" Soul tried to go to her, but his feet wouldn't move. He reached his hands out for her and his hands were pushing against an invisible wall. He pounded on it, but it wouldn't budge. "MAKA!"_

_She raised her head and smiled at him. "Soul." She looked down at her stomach where the scythe was. The wound began bleeding…a lot._

"_No…this can't happen, stop it!"_

"_It's no use." A new voice rang out and a figure began materializing behind Maka. Whoever the shadowy figure was, he was holding the hilt of the scythe._

"_Hey, who are you? Why did you do this to Maka?"_

_The darkness surrounding the figure dissipated revealing…another Soul in a completely black suit. The real Soul began pounding harder on the invisible glass that separated him from his meister._

"_No, there's no way…MAKA THAT'S NOT THE REAL ME! I'D NEVER HURT YOU MAKA!"_

_Maka raised her head at his voice and touched the area around her wound, pulling her hand away to examine the blood._

_The fake Soul jarred the scythe, causing Maka to groan in pain. He leaned close to her ear and whispered, "Soul did this to you." He then transformed into the kishin that hurt her back in Germany. He placed one of his sharp fingers up to her throat and began laughing._

_Soul screamed as he felt the exact pain in his chest that she felt on her throat._

"MAKA!" Soul's eyes snapped open and tears mixed with his sweat. Never were his dreams that detailed and never that long.

Soul was taking deep breaths to calm himself when he vaguely registered a knock on his door. He heard Maka's voice. "Soul?" His head snapped to the door and what he saw made his heart stop and his body go numb.

Maka stood in the doorway in her favorite apron. Blood dripped from her hand and onto her wrist.

"Soul?" _He__looks__like__he__'__s__seen__a__ghost._

Without another thought, Soul jumped off his bed, ran to Maka and pulled her into a hug.

"Soul?"

"MakaI'msosorryIdidn'tmeanforyoutogethurtIdidn'tmeanforthistohappen-"

"Soul!"

"Please be okay!" He gripped the back of her shirt tightly.

Maka was confused, but gently pushed him back so she could look into his scared face. "Soul, I'm fine. I just cut myself while I was making dinner. I came in here because you have the first aid kit." She showed Soul her bloody hand, sure enough there was a cut on the palm of her hand.

"O-oh. That's uh-"

"Soul, what's wrong?"

"Huh?"

"I know something's wrong. You can tell me."

Soul maneuvered them both so they were sitting on the floor of his room, facing each other. "Lately I've been having…nightmares."

"Nightmares?" Maka blinked. He never talked about his 'uncool' dreams with her.

"Yeah." They were silent for a bit.

"…What are they about?"

"…You."

"Me? What happened in them." Soul was silent. "Soul, you can tell me, I promise I won't get angry or do anything. We're still friends okay?" That's when it all came out. He told her everything, when they started, what was in each of them, and how scared he was when he woke up. He finally reached the one he just had.

"…And then, someone said 'it's no use' and…and I appeared. I was holding the scythe and I was telling you it was all my fault. Then I turned into a kishin and…I-" he couldn't finish. His throat had closed and he felt tears coming on. He bowed his head.

"Soul, it's okay to cry."

"Nah, it's not cool to cry in front of girls," Soul replied thickly. He jumped slightly as he felt himself being forced forward.

Maka had pulled him into a hug. "It's more uncool to hold it all in." Soul couldn't hold it in anymore. He wrapped his arms around her back, bowed his head onto Maka's collarbone, and cried in front of his meister for the first time. Maka kept one arm on his back for support and gently patted his head with her other. Soul held onto her tightly, yet gently enough so her healing ribs wouldn't protest. Tears streamed down his face and he couldn't remember the last time he ever cried or was held like this. Maka placed her head on top of his and Soul's heart twisted. He would miss her so much if anything happened to her. What would he do without her? Maka was now rubbing his bare back, slowly and only in the middle, knowing that he was ticklish on his sides. As embarrassing as it was to cry in front of her, he wouldn't cry in front of anyone else.

When his tears had subsided and his breathing slowed, he rested his chin on Maka's shoulder, peeking down at her back to make sure there wasn't a scythe sticking out of her back. When he was sure there wasn't one, he breathed deeply.

"Feel better?"

"…Yeah." He felt Maka pull back a little and he felt her place her hands on his face so he was forced to look at her with his puffy, red eyes. She carefully wiped the tears off his face and smiled at him. "That wasn't so hard was it? C'mon, help me find a band-aid."

Soul helped her find a wipe to clean off the blood and put a band-aid over her cut. He felt better, but even more tired now that he had a good cry. All he wanted to do was sleep, but he was scared.

"Soul?"

"Yeah Maka?"

"Why don't you take a nap, you look exhausted."

Soul sighed. "I can't. Every time I fall asleep I have those dreams again…"

Maka was silent as she took off her apron. "I have an idea." She gently took his hand and led him over to his bed. She propped his pillow against the headboard and sat down, leaning against it. "Lie down and put your head in my lap."

Soul raised an eyebrow but complied. Maka began finger-combing his hair. "My mom used to do this for me when I had nightmares, I hope it works…" Soul was already becoming sleepy.

Soul exhaled deeply, it felt really nice. He was almost asleep when he spoke. "Hey Maka?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

She smiled. "That's what friends are for right?"

He smiled a little. "You're the coolest one Maka."

And for the first time in weeks, when he saw Maka in his dreams, she was smiling at him.

**A/N: This story was inspired by some really pretty fanart (I don't know who drew it) showing Soul crying in Maka's shoulder. And this came out of it.**


End file.
